Software AG, a global leader in business infrastructure software, has announced that they are partnering with Siemens to support the UK Government’s “smart grid” and “smart metering” initiatives. The UK Government has set a target date of 2020 for installing a smart meter in over 26 million homes country-wide. Siemens and Software AG have developed a demonstration with partners Electralink and eMeter to show how a central communications gateway can provide access to, and control of, smart meters. Power providers can use ElecraLink’s interim solution for Smart Interoperability PortalTM and avail of the functionality of smart meters immediately, bringing forward the timeline for a full national roll-out.
Smart meters are fundamental to supporting a national “smart grid” and tackling the annual loss of 10% of electricity production to theft and technical problems in both Europe and the USA. Smart grids would provide a measurable and sustainable contribution to global green IT initiatives, saving an estimated $227 billion over the next 40 years in the USA alone.
The ElectraLink Smart Metering Interoperability Portal (SMIP) concept was proposed in 2008 to provide a solution to the challenge of smart metering in the highly deregulated UK market. The complexities of a national roll-out mean that it will be several years before a new model to support smart meters can be realised. By providing an interim service that supports access to the functionality of smart meters, before any mandated solution is launched, Software AG, Siemens and their partners have bridged that gap.
Kevin Tutton, UK Director of Siemens Metering Services says “Siemens is delighted to be leading the way on realising the benefits of smart metering by bringing key players together to provide a solution which will enable the industry to move forward positively through a period of significant change.”
Jim Shaw, Energy and Utilities Specialist at Software AG: “Software AG is pleased to be enabling this innovation which is fuelling the introduction of smart meter technology to the UK utility market. We have successfully implemented smart metering projects from Australia to the USA and can now bring this experience to this partnership, minimising risk and enabling consumers to more quickly reap the benefits of smart metering.”
The partners appreciate that all suppliers and market participants have very different requirements and vision for the future when it comes to building a smart metering platform and that a supplier/market participant will have invested heavily in their existing technology platform and operational processes. This is why the Siemens’ hosted EnergyIP™ MDM (Meter Data Management) service and the SmIP platform enables a service led SOA platform to deliver incremental value whilst minimising risk and costs to energy suppliers.
Software AG, Siemens and partners can provide a number of integration patterns & technologies to integrate with the energy suppliers’ platforms as a either hosted model or partially hosted model on-site where this is appropriate to align market participant standards and policies. This model is flexible but also structured in a way to ensure it allows existing technology platform investment to be maintained whilst enabling integration with the Smart Metering World now.
*eMeter is a global MDM software company with installations in North America, Europe and Asia Pacific.
Learn the basics about smart meter data and analytics to the cloud here at the Greentechmedia website.
Learn about Siemens’ vision for an energy efficient future at their website here.
About Software AG
Software AG is the global leader in Business Process Excellence. Our 40 years of innovation include the invention of the first high-performance transactional database, Adabas; the first business process analysis platform, ARIS; and the first B2B server and SOA-based integration platform, webMethods.
It offer one of the world’s only end-to-end – and easiest to use – business process management (BPM) solutions, with the lowest Total-Cost-of-Ownership. Our industry-leading brands, ARIS, webMethods, Adabas, Natural and IDS Scheer Consulting, represent a unique portfolio for: process strategy, design, integration and control; SOA-based integration and data management; process-driven SAP implementation; and strategic process consulting and services.
The company is headquartered in Germany and listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (TecDAX, ISIN DE 0003304002 / SOW).
Peruse on-demand webinars on the software at the Software AG website here.